Fisherman have, from time immemorial, cast their lines in the hope of catching a fish at the end of the line. Fishermen practice their casting techniques in the hope of having their line extend further into the waters where the fish are. Many fishermen wish to know how far their lines have been cast. It is not, however, practical for the fisherman to cast his line and then proceed to measure its length of cast by the use of conventional measuring devices such as a tape measure.
There have been several attempts to provide a fisherman with a measuring device that is capable of measuring the distance that a wire or string is released or unwound from a holder such as a spool or reel without requiring the user to be at both ends of the line, as is necessary with a long tape measure.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,972 to Falk et al. discloses a device having a string wound on a spool. To measure the distance the string is unwound from the spool, it is covered with dye at regular intervals along its length. Photoelectric sensors detect the passage of the dyed areas as the string is spooled out. Since the dyed areas are spaced from one another by a known distance, counting the number of dyed areas that pass the sensors allows calculation of the amount of string that has been spooled out, and thus, the distance spanned by the string. However, none of the devices disclosed in the art provide effective means for measuring the amount of fishing line that is cast with a rod and reel. The photoelectric scheme of the Falk patent, for example, would be inappropriate for this use with a rod and reel. Debris from the water, such as plant matter or dirt, that sticks to the line might trigger the optical sensors of the Falk device, generating a false signal and creating an incorrect distance measurement. The sensors themselves could also become covered with muck, defeating their usefulness altogether. Stray light from the sun or reflections in rugged outdoor conditions could also cause erroneous measurements as the rod is rapidly moved through an entire arc of motion. Further, with a line speed exceeding several feet per second, the likelihood of erroneous results due to optical irregularities is greatly increased.
The prior system as exemplified in the Falk patent also suffers from high battery drain, since the light emitters must be on during the entire casting operation. Finally, the path that the line is forced to take between the optical emitters and detectors is quite narrow, which may well result in limited vertical and lateral motion and increased friction on the line.